Florida Marlins: Chris Coghlan will have surgery Wednesday, likely out until 2011

Left-fielder Chris Coghlan just told us he will have surgery Wednesday in Miami to repair the torn meniscus in his left knee. The recovery time is four to eight weeks.

Coghlan isn’t ruling out a return this year but he knows it’s a long shot.

“There’s no timetable. I’ll have to see how my knee responds,” he said. “I can tell you I will do everything in my power to get back healthy as quick as I can. When that is I don’t know. I’ve just been told that its between four and eight weeks.”

Coghlan injured the knee while shoving in shaving cream pie in Wes Helms’ face during a post-game celebration on July 25.

“It matters more to the public of how you get injured, especially with the circumstances of how it happened to me,” he said.

“But to me the bottom line is I was injured and it’s disappointing. It’s tough watching your team going out there and compete and you’re not able to help your team.

“Even though some injuries Ive been able to play through but this is just one I’m not gonna be able to play through…

“This is something I just can’t, it’s something I have a chance of further tearing. As of right now I can’t even get out there and be able to perform that I need to to be able to help the team.”

JOHNSON OK WITH LEAVING SATURDAY AFTER EIGHT INNINGS
Josh Johnson said there was nothing sinister about manager Edwin Rodriguez’s decision to pull him out of the game last night after throwing 99 pitches through eight innings.

He left with a 2-1 lead before Leo Nunez allowed two runs, costing Johnson a chance at a win.

Rodriguez said he was ready to send Johnson back out for the ninth — “a no-brainer” decision, he said. But he said he was surprised when Johnson, who has been battling allegries, insisted he was tired. Since JJ said he was tired, Edwin made the decision to pull him.

The biggest factor, Johnson said, was that he’d pitched the last two games in 50-degree weather on the west coast. That made it tough to adjust to 90-degree temps last night.

“I told him (in the eighth), ‘I’m pretty tired.’ I told him I’d be honest with him,” Johnson said. “You can definitely get hurt.”

It may have looked like Johnson was on cruise control — he allowed one hit over the final four innings — but JJ said he was tired.

“I felt like I threw 120 pitches, 130 pitches. That’s what it felt like,” he said. “I had no idea I threw 99.”

Meanwhile, Edwin said Nunez’s days as a closer will be numbered unless he stops relying so much on his chanegup.

“For now, I am going to use him as the closer. But then again if he doesn’t make any adjustments, we have to find other options, closer-by-committee,” Edwin said.